Westworld Season 2 Episode 3 begins in a new park called the Raj.
Just like Westworld is based on the American Wild West, and Shogun World on feudal Japan,
the Raj is based on the Raj period in India, when it was ruled by the British Empire . So
we see hookahs and rickshaws and peacocks and elephants, and someone plays a sitar,
but the song is Seven Nation Army – cause why let historical accuracy get in the way
of a banger?
The guests Grace and Nicholas hook up, but Grace suspects that Nic might be a host . And
she doesn’t want to fuck a robot, because they’re not free, they “just do as [they’re]
told”.
But Nic says doing what you’re told can be “half the fun” – he likes being controlled.
So even this random sex scene raises questions about freedom and control – which is what
this show’s all about.
To make sure Nic is human, Grace shoots him, because the high-tech bullets in Westworld
are coded to only hurt hosts . At least, they were, until Dolores’ rebellion, when Ford
reprograms the guns to kill humans as well . Which means these Raj scenes are a flashback
happening sometime in Season 1.
Grace and Nic go on a tiger hunt, but Grace is hunting for something else – she has
a map with this hexagonal pattern which also appears around Delos’ secret data project.
So is Grace a Delos employee, helping them secure their data?
Or does she have her own plans?
The hosts in the Raj go rogue and start killing guests.
So this bit probably happens round the same time that the Westworld hosts rebel.
Grace escapes, then gets chased by a tiger – the same animal they’d been hunting.
Across the parks, the humans have become the hunted.
The tiger knocks Grace off a cliff, and they wash up in Westworld.
The tiger dies and becomes the same tiger we see in Episode 1.
Then Grace meets some hosts of Ghost Nation – who have secrets of their own.
We jump to the two weeks ahead timeline, with Bernard, Strand’s security, and Charlotte.
Maling mentions that “Someone took out the Cradle” . According to a Westworld email,
the Cradle is a “simulation technology” that stores and tests park storylines . Online,
the Cradle appears as a red U-shaped room, which looks like this room in a trailer.
The Cradle might connect to Delos’ secret project of recording guest behaviour . Because
that behaviour data might help with simulating behaviour in the Cradle.
And maybe, if you could perfectly simulate people, you could make copies of people as
robots, like in the Futureworld movie.
This could explain this shot in an alternate trailer, which seems to show old William with
James Delos.
James was sick and dying thirty years ago . So how is he alive in the present?
Maybe this James is a robot clone of the original, made with data in the Cradle.
But then why would someone ‘take out’ the Cradle?
Maybe for the same reason someone flooded this Valley, where the data project seems
to be.
William described this place as his greatest mistake – maybe he destroys it.
Bernard flashes back a week to the present timeline, where he and Charlotte search for
Peter Abernathy – because Peter has secret Delos data in his head.
They find Peter with the host Rebus, who’s selling people as slaves to the Confederados.
We don’t know if Rebus is programmed to do this, or if he’s choosing to do it cause
he’s just immoral.
But then, Bernard reprograms Rebus’ personality, to make him a virtuous good guy . Which explains
why, a week later in Episode 1, Rebus tries to protect another host . When the Confederados
arrive, Rebus fights to protect his former slaves – is Rebus acting freely here?
He says he’s “heedin' [his] convictions” , but Bernard just changed Rebus’ convictions.
This could illustrate the idea that even if we are free, we’re bound to follow our personalities
and values.
In the chaos, Charlotte escapes, but Bernard and Peter are captured.
Dolores takes over the Confederado army, promising to help them beat the humans , and get to
Glory – which is the flooded valley weapon data place.
Dolores has Clementine, who’s acting like a murder-zombie since she got lobotomised
last season.
Clementine was built to be killed without mercy.
Now she kills without mercy.
Peter arrives, and has an emotional reunion with Dolores, because he was her host father
back at their ranch.
But Peter’s brain is scrambled ever since Charlotte and Lee filled it with Delos data
last season . Charlotte tried to smuggle Peter out of the park on a train – which is why
he keeps saying “I need to get to the train” . His mind keeps bouncing between old personalities
. So sometimes he speaks like Dolores’ father . But sometimes he speaks like “the professor”,
an old role he played who liked to quote Shakespeare . So Pete recites lines from King Lear . Dolores
feels conflicted.
Cause she wants to reject her old fake life and wage her war against humans.
She tells the Confederados to call her Wyatt – the bad guy role.
But Dolores still loves the men she was programmed to love – Peter and Teddy . So kind of like
Peter, Dolores is torn between different identities.
Maybe that means she’s a malfunctioning machine.
Or, maybe, being truly conscious and human means juggling different identities and roles.
While Dolores shows love for Peter, she’s harsh to Bernard – tossing him in jail . Maybe
she’s mad that he was her jailer in Westworld for all those years.
But at the same time, she recognises Bernard as the replacement of Arnold – Dolores’
creator, who she saw as a sort of a father.
So she wants Bernard to approve of her plan to “dominate” the “world” . But Bernard’s
not so sure about her war.
Bernie looks at the data in Peter’s head, and is shocked, though we only see this hexagonal
symbol from the Delos data project and Grace’s notebook.
Dolores fights a battle against Delos security, who decide their best tactical option is to
slowly walk across a field towards the death-bots.
Dolores blows up the humans, but she also betrays and kills the Confederados . Why does
Dolores kill other hosts?
She tells them the same thing she tells a Ghost Nation host in Ep 1 – that “we don't
all deserve to make it” to the “the valley beyond” . Dolores judges the Confederados
unworthy.
And they do seem like pricks , but they were programmed that way, right?
We just saw how Rebus can be switched from a villain to a hero – so can you really
judge a machine for following its code?
Maybe Dolores blames the hosts for not awakening to full consciousness like she did.
But it took Dolores decades of wandering the maze to awake.
So is it really fair to blame these guys?
Dolores tells Teddy to execute the Confederado survivors, but he disobeys and lets them go.
Teddy is finally thinking for himself.
But how will Dolores react?
Also, during the battle Charlotte takes Peter – but we know from the week ahead timeline
that she later loses him again.
And Charlotte seem to suspect that Bernard is responsible .
Maeve Hector and Lee are on their way to find Maeve’s daughter, when they encounter some
hosts of Ghost Nation.
Maeve recognises one host who attacked her in her past life at the homestead.
The hosts demand that Maeve give them Lee . Maeve refuses, and tries to use her power
to control them, but they resist her command.
So Maeve and co run away.
Why are these hosts immune to Maeve’s Jedi mind tricks?
She’s commanded Bernard, a sheriff, Lee’s cannibal.
What makes the Ghost Nation hosts different?
And why do they want Lee, but not Maeve or Hector?
Is it because Lee is human?
They did capture Stubbs last season, and now apparently Grace.
It looks like Ghost Nation is collecting humans, but why?
Some fans theorise that they’re trying to protect humans, possibly they’re working
with Elsie.
One way or another, Ghost Nation will be a big part of this season, especially the character
Akecheta, who also appears in Maeve’s flashback.
Sizemore gets mad about Maeve and Hector’s relationship.
He wrote these characters, and he’s upset to see them change from his script, like an
author who doesn’t like fanfiction.
Hector says that his old scripted love was fake, but his new love with Maeve is real
. But then Lee shows that Hector uses scripted dialogue to describe his new love . So does
this mean Hector’s love isn’t real?
Or is he just using the words he knows to express something true?
Maybe all of us are limited by our language, and culture – it’s our programming . Maeve
meets up with Armistice, Felix and Sylvester.
Armistice has a new arm, because she lost her old one last season.
The party passes through a snowy area, which might suggest that Delos can control the weather?
And they encounter a warrior from Shogunworld.
We don’t know if this guy came across to Westworld from Shogunworld, or if Lee’s
directions are so bad that they wandered into Shogunworld.
Or maybe Lee deliberately misled them.
However it happened, this culture clash may complicate Maeve’s quest.
So this episode focusses closely on the central questions of Westworld.
Like, what is freedom, and how do our desires and personalities and identities affect that?
Can you morally judge a machine?
What does love mean to a machine?
And what kinda Black Mirror Bladerunner shenanigans can we achieve with big data and robotics?
Westworld is trying to ask some really big questions.
For more Westworld analysis, check out the subreddit, and the podcasts Decoding Westworld,
Bald Move and others.
Thank you to the Patrons for supporting Alt Shift X, including Marissa Shacket, Kahne
O'Banion, Yami Jeudy, Cooper Pellaton, and Soxiando.
Cheers.